


Light in the Darkness

by LibraryMage



Series: Ktavnukkah 5779 [1]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Ktavnukkah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 03:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Ezra has barely stopped crying since the moment he was born.(written for the Ktavnukkah prompt "hope")





	Light in the Darkness

Mira was wrenched awake by the sound of screaming. She barely needed to open her eyes as she stumbled to the crib on the other side of the room. As she carefully picked Ezra up, she glanced at the chronometer. It had only been twenty minutes since she’d last fed Ezra, and this wasn’t the cry that told her he was hungry. After just four days, she could already tell the difference. This was the same cry he’d made when he was born, a scream that pierced the air, sounding almost _scared_.

“It’s alright,” she whispered, holding Ezra close to her chest as she began to pace around the room. “You’re safe.”

Sometimes she wondered if he knew. The night he was born, the galaxy had finished unravelling around them. At first, she hadn't known anything, but a few hours after Ezra was born, she’d finally heard. The Jedi had been accused of treason, and there were rumors of summary executions already being carried out. A few hundred senators, including Lothal’s, had warrants out for their arrest, accusing them of backing the Jedi’s attempted coup. The Republic had been dissolved completely, replaced by a new regime headed by the chancellor.

In the days since, news had slowly made its way across the galaxy of an attack on the Jedi temple on Coruscant, manhunts for fugitive Jedi, martial law imposed on planet after planet, spreading out from the core worlds like a disease. And Ezra had barely stopped screaming.

She knew it didn’t make sense. He was a baby, only four days old. He couldn’t know. He certainly couldn’t have known just seconds after his birth. But Mira couldn’t rid herself of the feeling that Ezra could somehow sense the darkness closing in around them.

“I’m sorry, Ezra,” Mira said, rocking her screaming son lightly in her arms.

She’d known he was going to be born into a galaxy devastated by war. From the moment she’d first found out she was pregnant, she’d been torn between guilt and hope. In so many ways, bringing a child into this galaxy felt wrong. It wasn’t fair to him. But he also been a bright spot in the darkness that had surrounded them and was slowly consuming the galaxy. He still was. Even as he was crying out in terror, for just a moment as she held him, Mira couldn’t help but think that maybe one day things could get brighter again.

Mira kept walking around the room, whispering soft, soothing words to Ezra. Finally, after what felt like hours but the chronometer told her was only ten minutes, Ezra began to quiet down. He didn’t settle. He still squirmed in her grasp and let out small noises that almost sounded like whimpers of fear as he stared up at her with those wide blue eyes that looked so much older and more haunted than any baby’s should.

“It’s okay,” she said. And for just a moment, she had hope that maybe it really would be.


End file.
